Bookworm from Astraware

Bookworm is the addictive and creative mind game from Astraware that can be played on your own or with the help of some friends and family. In fact, why not teach the kids how to spell using this game? An educational tool collaborated with a hypnotising game, what more do the youth of today need?

Overall first impressions of the game show that Bookworm is not for the faint hearted. At first the game seems as though your mind will surely explode with frustration as you try to find as many words as you can within the puzzle, however try and be a smart Alec and get rewarded for the genius within as you receive more points the longer the words!

Whilst playing the game; on the screen is of an overview of a list of 7 columns of letters, imagine the letters you get when you play scrabble, on the squares…well that’s how the game itself is. Through this table you must connect adjoining letters in order to create words which will help you get onto the next stage, it doesn’t matter how short (min 3 letters) or how long (didn’t manage to get past 5 letters!) your words are, you get recognition for them, so long as the game recognises them as words. So for example, you cannot put in swear words, or short hand, or abbreviations. I should know as I tried most of these!

The overall graphics of Bookworm are a lot like the Bejeweled game from Astraware, simple but colourful and lets the player concentrate on the game at hand without being distracted by fancy displays. The reaction speed is up to scratch and does not hinder the game. The concept is really clever, with Lex the worm as your guidance, to teach you about the different coloured letters, and the power that they have.

Let me tell you about those that I encountered whilst playing the game. The letter which presents itself with a fire background; you need to be careful of these ones and get rid of them as fast as you can do. If the letter gets to the bottom of the page you will have burned down the virtual library that you are playing in. Another coloured square was the green one, which when used within a word increased the points you received for creating the word. So no matter what length the word was, you were guaranteed to get a high score. Then there was the gold letter, which increased you score astronomically. They were undoubtedly my favourite ones!

As you create a letter the other letters move down so that you can have new ones appear at the top, a lot like Bejeweled in that respect. This is when the coloured squares were introduced and should you run out of options to create new words you just need to tap Lex the worm and he will bring new letters to the top of the screen. Be wary to use this option though as he will also bring with him the fire letters, best not to play with fire (a wise old proverb).

This game is both enthralling and entertaining, with the mind working hard to find the letters you can’t help but continue to play this game, no matter what the distraction. Another A class performing game from Astraware. Bookworm can be downloaded from the Astraware website.